


what do i do because of you?

by brightlight



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Babysitting, M/M, lee jihoon trying his best, most of this is just jihoon with a baby i'll be honest with you, seokmin is an angel, soft & gentle kidfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-25 19:32:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16666927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightlight/pseuds/brightlight
Summary: Jeonghan and Jisoo leave Jihoon to babysit by himself, and when he panics, Seokmin offers to help. If it were anyone else, he would have said no, but, well...it's Seokmin.





	what do i do because of you?

**Author's Note:**

> howdy folks, your friendly neighborhood rarepair enthusiast is back with a baby fic. i wrote this listening to "1950" by king princess on repeat and that seems worth mentioning. 
> 
> (title from "oh my" by svt)

Jihoon is eighty percent sure he’ll survive today. As the sound of the front door closing echoes through the apartment, the baby in his arms makes a loud noise of protest, and Jihoon blinks.

Seventy percent, maybe.

He had previously informed Jisoo and Jeonghan that he was available for babysitting “if everyone else ended up dead,” and it’s startling that they’re in a close enough range to that particular situation that Jihoon finds himself here, babysitting a six-month-old.

Everyone’s not _dead_ , but to Jihoon they might as well be. Seungcheol and Wonwoo are on vacation in Busan, which rules out Jisoo and Jeonghan’s first choice. Minghao, Junhui, and Chan are traveling with their dancers to a regional competition, and Soonyoung went along as moral support (and because Jihoon knows he misses coaching.) Seungkwan planned the opening of an art gallery today, and brought Hansol and Mingyu along to look dignified and pretty while he ran around making sure everything was running alright, and Seokmin’s with his sister on a rare visit to Seoul. 

So here’s Jihoon, sitting in Jisoo and Jeonghan’s stupid fancy apartment, with their stupid baby in her stupid fancy clothes.

A voice in Jihoon’s head chides him for insulting a baby, and he mutters, “Sorry,” out loud to the baby, which is dumb on like three different levels. At least Mina hasn’t made any more noise since her little squawk when her fathers left. Now he’s just sitting here, holding her awkwardly, staring down at her little face. She’s cute, he’ll admit it; he’s not a baby person, but Mina is cute. She has big chubby cheeks and wide brown eyes, with a sparse little tuft of black hair on her head, and she is acutely terrifying to Lee Jihoon. 

“What do you...do?” Jihoon asks her quietly, feeling silly. But people talk to babies. It’s a thing he’s seen people do, like in movies. “Do you just lay here?”

Mina gurgles up at him. Jihoon nods. He eyes the play mat covered with baby toys on the living room floor, a rare sign that Jeonghan and Jisoo’s married life is anything other than aesthetically meticulous.

“Do you...play?” Jihoon asks Mina. Logically, he knows this must be the case. He’s seen Mina playing before. He’s never seen her get transported into the act. He carries her gingerly over until he’s close enough to the mat, spread out on the floor with toys and stuffed animals lying on it, a mobile set up overtop. “I’ll just put your down on your stomach,” he mutters, lowering her down. 

(“She likes tummy time,” Jisoo had told him earnestly in the quick 15-minute briefing he got before they abruptly left him here with the object of all their love and affection. Jihoon just stared at him blankly, hoping Jisoo would realize how fucking insane it was that he was expected to know what that meant.)

But Jihoon’s attempt is successful. Mina was face-down on the carpet, arms reaching out to grab at a nearby toy, looking relatively pleased. Jihoon nodded again, sat there on his knees and staring down at an infant. Okay. A mild success. What now? He sits there, feeling stupid but also feeling like if he moved, something terrible would happen, and watches Mina paw clumsily at a stuffed giraffe, waving it around in her little hand. 

He had little time to appreciate his success, though, because after a moment Mina lets out a little whine apropos of nothing, apparently overcome by sudden misery.

“Oh, god,” Jihoon mutters, watching in awestruck horror as she begins to cry. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he continues, feeling a little frantic, leaning down to look at her face. “What do you need? What’s wrong?” 

They’re things he’s heard Jisoo and Jeonghan say to her, but when they say it, it sounds sweet and caring. The way he’s saying it makes it sound like he’s trying to rapidly put out a spreading fire, the verbal equivalent of stamping on an open flame, and he feels his stress levels rising. 

Mina just cries in response, and Jihoon reaches forward to grab her, picking her up carefully. 

“There’s only three things she really needs right now, so if she’s crying, it’s one of those,” Jeonghan had said before they left. Right, he thinks, looking her over as she cries. Food, sleep, diaper. 

Her diaper smells clean, and her nap time’s not for a while according to Jeonghan’s quick run-down of the baby’s schedule, so Jihoon asks, “Food? Are you hungry?” 

Mina, of course, doesn’t respond, and Jihoon sighs. He cradles her nervously in his arms and walks over to the fridge, where the little side shelf that Jeonghan and Jisoo used to keep wine bottles in is now filled with pre-portioned bottles of baby formula. As soon as the fridge door opens, Mina goes quiet, and Jihoon stares at her in amazement.

“Wow,” he mutters. “You really are a little person, aren’t you. You know the fridge.”

She stays quiet as he warms up the formula in the stupid bottle warmer sitting on their counter. He imagines that a bowl of warm water would do the same job, but it’s Jisoo and Jeonghan, so of course they have a little electric bottle warmer. 

Mina’s problems seem to be solved with the warm bottle of formula, and he even finds it in himself to be amused and endeared as he sits there with her cradled in his arms, drinking her milk happily. Her eyes are slipping closed while she drinks, and it’s cute. She looks like Seungkwan when he’s had too much to drink, sleepy but insisting on ordering more. He laughs softly. 

“You’re not so scary,” he says softly, looking down at her. But she finishes drinking soon enough, and then Jihoon has to remember the next set of steps to follow. Caring for a baby is a lot of steps, he thinks. He hoists her up over his shoulder and pats on her back gently, trying to burp her and wondering how long exactly it takes for a baby to burp after drinking milk. He’s distracted, then, when she spits up all over the shoulder of his shirt.

“Oh, god,” he says in a loud voice, and Mina makes a noise like she’s going to cry again. 

“No, sorry,” he says, pulling her away from his shoulder, “It’s not your fault. Sorry. God, this is terrible. Do you...feel better, at least?” 

Mina just kind of looks at him, but she’s not crying, so Jihoon counts it as a win. “Okay. Well. I think it’s naptime, so let’s go to bed, Mina.” 

He carries her into the nursery, about to bring her to her little crib, but then he sees the changing table. “I should change your diaper first, I guess?” he says, voice wavering a little on the question.

“She can flip the changing pad over and fall, so you need to keep a hand on her while she’s lying there,” Jisoo had said breezily earlier, and Jihoon looked at him in mild horror. He’s not sure why they purchased an item that could kill their child, but he makes sure to keep his hand steady on her chest as he lays her down, preventing her from rolling over. Of all things, cleaning diapers doesn’t bother him very much. At least it’s procedural; there’s a mess to clean, and he’s capable of cleaning it. With all the other stuff, there’s so much guesswork, so much flexibility required. Jihoon has never been very good at flexibility. 

With a clean diaper, he lays Mina down in her crib with a pacifier in her mouth, her little body buffeted by a little bolster pillow on all sides. She stares up at him, and Jihoon finds himself wondering if this is how she’s supposed to look before she sleeps. She looks really awake — is that normal? He pulls her back out after a few moments of no change, carries her over to the rocking chair uncertainly.

“Do you need to be rocked? People do that in movies. I can do that, right?” He asks her, sitting down and beginning to rock back and forth. He goes at a steady rhythm, humming a song he’s had stuck in his head for a few days, but Mina starts giggling at him instead of her eyes falling gently closed. 

“Oh. Maybe it’s not time for your nap. Do you want to play again?” Jihoon asks her, furrowing his brows.

The next half-hour goes on in a similar fashion, Mina alternating between whining tiredly and trying to play, too awake to go down in her crib. She’s threatening to cry at every step, and Jihoon feels panicked as nothing he’s doing seems to be _working_. There’s only three things she needs, yet none of them are working to calm her. 

Jihoon sits there, holding a sort of miserable-looking baby, and considers his options: he could call Jeonghan, and be met with his condescending little smirk and have it held over his head _forever_ that he couldn’t figure out how to care for a baby. He could call Seungcheol, but Seungcheol would just tell Jeonghan, and he’d end up at the same spot. Everyone else was either too busy to be called right now, or in the case of Hansol and Mingyu, wouldn’t have anything useful to tell him. Mina starts crying in earnest now, and Jihoon rocks her in his arms frantically. 

Seokmin. He could call Seokmin, he thinks. He’s with his sister, but that’s okay — he won’t mind a five minute interruption. Seokmin would know what to do, he’s good at this kind of thing. He’s in-tune with everyone’s needs, including babies. Jihoon nods, pulling his phone out of his pocket and still trying to comfort Mina with his other hand. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay, Mina—” he’s muttering, but then he’s interrupted.

“Hyung?” Seokmin’s confused voice asks.

“Seokmin-ah,” Jihoon says, wanting to give a sigh of relief at the sound of his voice.

Seokmin laughs a little. “Hyung, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“I’m babysitting Mina,” he responds, speaking over the sound of Mina’s crying. 

“Oh,” Seokmin says. “Is _she_ okay?”

“She’s fine, I think, just,” Jihoon pauses. With anyone else he might be embarrassed to say _I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing_ , but this is Seokmin. Jihoon is rarely embarrassed in front of Seokmin. “She was supposed to nap, but she wouldn’t fall asleep, and she won’t play, and now she’s crying? And I’m not sure what I messed up, but she’s broken now, and —” 

Seokmin is laughing softly on the other end. “She’s not broken, hyung. She’s probably just over-tired.”

“What does that mean?” Jihoon asks nervously. 

“It means she was supposed to sleep but you missed her nap time, and now she’s overwhelmed by everything,” Seokmin answers, apparently trying to drown out Jihoon’s panic with how slow and calming his voice sounds.

“So what do I do _now_?” Jihoon asks with a groan. 

“Hyung, it’s okay. Do you want me to come over and help?” Seokmin asks, voice so kind. 

Jihoon hesitates. “Isn’t your sister in town today?”

“We went and saw a movie earlier. She’s out shopping with her friend right now, anyway. I can come help for a couple hours,” Seokmin says. 

Again, if it were someone else, Jihoon might lie and say _it’s fine, I can figure it out_. He’s always prickled against asking for help. But it’s Seokmin. “Yeah, please come over,” he says. “What do I do in the meantime?”

“Just try to comfort her, I guess,” Seokmin tells him. “You know, turn the lights down, maybe try to read a book to her, until she gets sleepy.” 

Jihoon nods decisively. “Okay. Thanks, Seokminnie.” 

“No problem, hyung. See you in a bit,” he says brightly, his smile audible over the phone. 

Mina still looks and sounds miserable, and Jihoon feels awful. “I’m sorry, Mina-ya, I messed up. Let’s try to get sleepy, okay?” 

He follows Seokmin’s instructions, bringing her back to the nursery and turning the lights off, only letting the sun filter in through the curtains in the dim room. He gets a storybook off her little bookshelf and, despite feeling silly reading words to a crying baby who can’t understand them even if she can hear him, starts reading, rocking her gently while he does. It’s a lot to juggle, physically and mentally, and his panic is palpable for ten entire minutes until her cries finally start to subside. 

He’s halfway through the storybook, trying to read a slow, calming pace, and with her cries subsiding, Jihoon continues more confidently. It’s only five more minutes until her eyes are starting to slip closed, and Jihoon stands carefully and slowly to transfer her to her crib. It’s a delicate mission, but he manages to accomplish it, and he’s never felt as proud as he does looking down at Mina’s sleeping form in her crib, undisturbed and finally peaceful. 

Left to his own devices, Jihoon accomplishes two personal tasks in rapid succession: first, he changes his shirt from the one with the spit-up stain to a worn-looking t-shirt from Jisoo’s dresser. Second, he walks purposefully into the kitchen, eyes the whiskey sitting on the bar tray, and decides against it. He’s babysitting, after all. Instead, he opens the fridge, and takes out a bottle of white wine lying on the bottom shelf — much more appropriate. He’s just managed to pour himself a glass with the buzzer to the apartment chimes, and Jihoon remembers that Seokmin said he’d come over. He looks down at his wine glass, then shrugs before walking over to let him up.

When Seokmin walks in, he looks between Jihoon and the wine glass, and raises his eyebrows.

“I got her to go to sleep,” Jihoon offers in explanation.

“Then by all means, let’s celebrate,” Seokmin tells him, smiling wide. 

It’s an involuntary response, the warmth Jihoon feels in his chest when Seokmin smiles at him like that. He imagines that everyone feels it when they see him smile — how could you not, really. 

“I knew you’d be okay,” Seokmin tells him confidently, walking over and getting his own wine glass. 

“I didn’t,” Jihoon says bluntly. Seokmin laughs.

“Hyung, you’re too hard on yourself.” 

Jihoon looks over at Seokmin, who’s still smiling at him, but smaller now. A sweet gesture. Jihoon looks back at his wine. “Probably.” He takes a drink.

They take their wine to the couch, propped up on opposite ends, Jihoon ignoring every urge in his brain to curl up beside Seokmin instead. He’s not sure what it is with Seokmin, what makes him want so badly to sit beside him, hold his hand, all that other shit he avoids doing with almost anyone. He’s an adult, for god’s sake; he’s twenty-six years old, and he’s sitting on someone else’s couch with the annoying heart-pounding feeling of a high school crush. Calling Seokmin was a bad idea. Jihoon drinks his wine. 

“How’s your sister?” He asks, and Seokmin smiles brightly, launching into a story about what they’d done so far, a silly argument they got in earlier. It’s a safe topic of conversation, and Jihoon nods, smiling along with Seokmin when he tells a joke. 

“Hyung, I’ve missed you lately,” Seokmin tells him a few minutes later, and that feels less safe to Jihoon. 

But luckily, Jihoon doesn’t have to think of a response, because there’s a weird noise on the baby monitor. Jihoon reaches over to the coffee table to grab it, and squints at the screen to see Mina, apparently asleep. Jihoon furrows his eyebrows.

“Do babies make noise when they sleep?” He asks.

Seokmin shrugs. “I guess they can.”

Jihoon nods, setting the baby monitor down, but he’s not entirely satisfied with that. “I’m going to go check on her.” 

Mina is, of course, fine. Her face is round and slack, sleeping peacefully, and Jihoon stands there and stares at her for a moment just to make sure she’s breathing and everything. He hears Seokmin walk in behind him, but he doesn’t turn around. 

“She’s so cute,” Seokmin coos softly, extending his hand out to touch her face but then thinking better of it and retracting his arm. 

Jihoon nods. “She’s a good baby.”

Seokmin laughs quietly. “Big words from Lee Jihoon.” 

“Just because I don’t like babies doesn’t mean I don’t love this one,” Jihoon says, rolling his eyes.

Seokmin laughs again, stepping over and resting his chin on top of Jihoon’s head. His arms fold around Jihoon’s shoulders easily, and Jihoon wishes it didn’t make him go stiff. Seokmin notices, because Jihoon hears a small sigh.

“Jihoon-hyung,” Seokmin starts softly. 

Jihoon doesn’t say anything, just looking down at Mina, counting her lucky that she doesn’t have to deal with messy romantic entanglements.

“Seokmin-ah,” Jihoon replies finally. He wants to turn around and look at Seokmin, but the thought terrifies him, so they stay the way they are. Seokmin’s fingers twitch against Jihoon’s skin intermittently, and it’s making him ticklish.

“How come you called me today?” Seokmin asks him. 

“Because you’re good at this kind of thing. Caring for people, knowing what they need,” Jihoon says, a little more honest than he planned, and his cheeks pink as a result. 

Seokmin hums. Jihoon can feel the buzz through the top of his head, a funny sensation. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

“I haven’t,” Jihoon lies. 

“You know what I think you need?” Seokmin asks him.

“What?” 

“To stop holding yourself back so much,” Seokmin says simply. 

Jihoon sighs. “Probably, Seokminnie.” He reaches up, feeling brave, and takes one of Seokmin’s hands in his. Seokmin’s hands are slightly larger than his, his skin tanner, and Jihoon looks at their hands clasped together with interest. He settles back into Seokmin’s chest, and Seokmin’s free arm wraps around him tighter.

“I’m not going to wait forever, you know,” Seokmin tells him, giving another soft little laugh. 

Jihoon closes his eyes. “You shouldn’t be waiting at all.” 

“I don’t have anything better to do, really,” Seokmin tells him, thumb stroking Jihoon’s knuckles. “But I wish you’d…”

“Get my head out of my own ass?” Jihoon guesses.

“I wasn’t going to phrase it like that, but sure,” Seokmin tells him. “Figure out what you want, is what I was going to say.”

Figuring out what he wants isn’t the problem. Jihoon knows what he wants — he wants this. He wants Seokmin solid against him, speaking to him softly and kindly the way he always has, comforting and reassuring and everything Jihoon has trouble believing he deserves, really. _That’s_ the problem. 

“You deserve someone who doesn’t have to convince themselves to be in a relationship, you know,” Jihoon tells him. 

“I’m the one who’s good at knowing what people need, right?” Seokmin asks him. He turns Jihoon around, so he’s finally looking away from the sleeping baby and instead met with the overwhelming sight of Seokmin, warm and handsome in front of him. “So trust my judgment.” 

Jihoon musters half a smile, mostly at his own expense. “I’m a mess.”

“You think you’re a lot more of a mess than you actually are,” Seokmin says, reaching his free hand up to stroke across Jihoon’s cheek in a way that is _wholly_ overwhelming. 

“Go on a date with me,” Seokmin says, voice quiet and hopeful. “Like real people do.” 

“You know I love pretending to be a real person,” Jihoon tells him with a little laugh. 

Seokmin smiles at him, leans forward slightly in a way that makes Jihoon’s heart race, but just like how he didn’t want to disturb Mina’s sleep, he seems to realize that continuing forward would be too disruptive, so he pulls back.

It’s just in time for Mina to apparently wake up from her nap, making a discontent gurgling sort of noise that startles Jihoon, in the quiet of the nursery. It shatters the delicate little moment hanging between Jihoon and Seokmin, and Seokmin lets Jihoon’s hand go in favor of walking up next to the crib and cooing down at Mina.

“Hello, Mina-ya, is your nap over? Are you tired of being in bed?” He asks her, voice honey-sweet, before reaching down and picking her up, cradling her like it’s the easiest thing in the world. 

It’s a sight that makes Jihoon a little achey in a strange way, Seokmin smiling down at the little baby in his arms. Maybe it’s how easy he is with affection, toward anyone and everyone, how good he is at this. How good he is, period. 

“She’s eating food now, right?” Seokmin asks Jihoon, and Jihoon breaks out of his self-pitying reverie to nod. 

“She hasn’t eaten yet this afternoon, though. She’s probably hungry,” Jihoon says. 

“Let’s go eat lunch, Mina-ya,” Seokmin says in his cooing baby voice to Mina, bouncing her in his arms to make her smile brightly. (It makes Jihoon smile, too.)

Lunch is a messy affair, to the point that Jihoon finds it kind of disgusting to watch Mina get squash puree all over her face and shirt, but Seokmin doesn’t seem to mind, even when specks of squash splatter onto his own shirt. Jihoon takes a backseat, choosing instead to wash out Mina’s bottle from earlier in the sink, laughing quietly when Mina and Seokmin trade laughs back and forth. 

“When are Jeonghan and Jisoo home?” Seokmin asks curiously as he carries Mina back to the nursery to change her clothes. 

“Probably in an hour or so,” Jihoon tells him, following behind him for lack of anything else to do. 

Seokmin glances at him as he sets Mina down on the changing table, a hand keeping her steady. “You want me to leave before they get here? I’ll let you take all the babysitting credit,” he offers with a grin.

“You should go back to your sister anyway,” Jihoon tells him, smiling back in his own small way. 

“Right,” Seokmin says, looking down at Mina again to pull off her messy onesie and replace it with a new one. Jihoon watches him smile down at Mina as he helps her get her arms in the onesie, buttoning it in the back. He picks her up again, holding her at his hip, and Jihoon gets that warm feeling in his chest.

_I want this_ , his mind tells him again. Seokmin, warm and kind and smiling. He bites his lip.

He follows behind Seokmin again as he takes Mina back out to the play mat in the living room, resting her down on her tummy and letting her wriggle around, rolling herself over to look at the mobile above her.

“It was good to see you, hyung,” Seokmin says, standing back up and giving Jihoon a smile that looks distinctly sad. “I should get going.” 

“Yeah,” Jihoon mutters. Seokmin walks over to him, looking down at Jihoon, and Jihoon bites his lip again. 

“Hey,” Jihoon says as Seokmin’s about to walk by. 

Seokmin raises his eyebrows. “Yes?”

“I want you. You know that, right? It’s not about not wanting you,” Jihoon tells him.

“I know that, Jihoon-hyung. But you know that’s the part that matters, right? The other stuff you’re in your head about, that’s the little stuff, the stuff we can figure out together,” Seokmin tells him. 

It doesn’t feel like little stuff, the doubt he feels that he’d be any good at caring for anyone the way they deserve, least of all Seokmin, who deserves everything in the world. 

“I’ll think about the date,” Jihoon tells him, instead of voicing his thoughts. 

Seokmin smiles, a real one this time. “That’d be nice.” 

They’re looking at each other, and Jihoon can’t explain it — maybe it’s the dregs of Jeonghan’s impulsive energy hanging around the corners of his apartment — but he follows his gut and leans up, puts his hands on Seokmin’s chest and leans up to kiss him. 

Seokmin is warm and solid and comforting against Jihoon, and the kiss makes his mind short-circuit a little bit. Maybe it’s because it’s been so long since he’s been kissed, but maybe it’s just because it’s Seokmin. Jihoon pulls away and looks up at Seokmin, whose eyes stay resolutely closed for a moment.

“Well if you don’t go on a date with me now, my feelings will be hurt,” Seokmin tells him in some approximation of a joking tone as his eyes blink open. 

“Don’t say that to me, you know I can never hurt your feelings,” Jihoon breathes, lips turning up slightly.

Seokmin laughs, a little too loud for how close they’re still standing. “The hyungs always say you’re weak for me.” 

“The hyungs have a point,” Jihoon mutters. His eyes flick between Seokmin’s eyes and his lips, and he contemplates kissing him again because at this point, he has very little to lose, but then Mina makes a little baby noise to the side of them. 

Right. Mina. Jihoon blushes, taking a step back. 

“Can’t believe you had a boy over while you were babysitting,” Seokmin says with a smirk. 

“Yeah, well,” Jihoon mutters, feeling embarrassed. “I needed you.” 

“You’re fine by yourself, I promise,” Seokmin tells him kindly. 

“I’m better with you, though,” Jihoon says quietly. 

Seokmin just looks at him, looking a little flustered. “Are you free Friday?”

“Yeah,” Jihoon tells him breathlessly. “I’m free.” 

“Great. I’ll let you know where to meet. It’s a date?” Seokmin asks. 

Jihoon nods. “A date.” 

“Have fun with Mina,” Seokmin tells him with a big smile, too big for normal well-wishing.

“Absolutely,” Jihoon agrees, feeling the urge to smile back. “Of course.”

Seokmin looks like he’s trying to leave, but he hasn’t moved. “Another kiss, maybe? For good luck? Safe travels?”

Seokmin lives ten minutes away. Still, Jihoon nods, stepping in close again and leaning up. This kiss is better, more coordinated, and Seokmin has his hands on the sides of Jihoon’s face. 

“Friday,” Seokmin says again when he pulls back. “See you Friday.”

“See you Friday,” Jihoon repeats, feeling the loss when Seokmin takes another step back.

Before he leaves, Seokmin walks over to Mina, leaning down and giving her a sweet goodbye, reaching out his fingers to tickle her sides and laugh. A good man. Seokmin is such a genuinely good man, and he wants Jihoon — maybe that in itself should be a vote of confidence that can take Jihoon’s self-sabotaging streak down a peg. 

They say goodbyes, and Jihoon sits down on Jeonghan and Jisoo’s fancy sofa, feeling overwhelmed. Wait til Jeonghan hears he made a healthy choice with his life, that’ll really shock him.

But maybe he doesn’t want to tell Jeonghan yet. Maybe he doesn’t want to tell anyone, just wants to keep this one for himself. The sweet blooming feeling in his chest, the one Seokmin coaxed out of him with his sunshine smile, feels like something he wants to keep to himself for a little while. 

He watches Mina, wiggling happily on the floor, and goes down to sit next to her. He stays there, offering toys to play with and humming little songs when he realizes she likes to hear them, until Jisoo and Jeonghan get back home half an hour later, looking impressed that everything’s in one piece.

“So everything went well?” Jisoo asks brightly, picking Mina up to look at her happily.

“Oh, yeah,” Jihoon says with a shrug, unable to keep himself from grinning a little. “Perfectly fine.” 

Jeonghan eyes him suspiciously, like he can tell that Jihoon is keeping something from him, but Jihoon just smiles at him. This one’s just for him, just for a little while. 

“Then you can babysit again for us Friday night, we wanted to go out,” Jeonghan says, standing next to Jisoo and bringing a hand up to pinch at Mina’s cheek gently. 

“Not Friday, no,” Jihoon tells him. “I have plans.” And then his smile grows, big enough that he knows he looks a little suspicious, but thanks to that open-petal feeling in his chest, he finds he doesn’t care one bit.

**Author's Note:**

> i can be found on twitter and curiouscat @idlemoonlight


End file.
